Whenever there is a problem on the M3 Winchester virtually locks up. The motorway should run round the City, not through it, but whenever there’s a problem motorists seem to think running through the centre of Winchester will somehow save them time, and so it was yesterday. I was due to drive the number 1 route twice, this route is a figure of eight leaving the bus station and then looping one area before returning to the Bus Station to do another loop of a different area.

I took the bus over and within 2 stops, got about 150 yards away from the bus station, the bus was filled to capacity – all 37 seats taken and 28 standing! As I passed further stops swinging my arm in a negative way to try and say “sorry, can’t you see I’m full” produced nothing but abuse (lip reading and body language relayed these messages). I crawled around this first loop stopping at every stop which took far longer than it should have because those at the back who wanted to get off had to fight their way past those who were standing. When I finally got back to the bus station it was already the time I should have been arriving after doing the second loop! I was told to ignore the lost trip and just to go again in 10 minutes on the scheduled first loop of the route again.

I got about a third of the way round the loop and then warning lights on the dashboard lit up and the buzzer kept sounding – the main belt on the engine had shredded. The lack of an alternator is not major problem in the short term but the lack of a water pump is of rather more immediate concern so I had pull over, stop the engine and inform control. No problem they’d get the engineers out and the passengers could catch the following bus, this route has a 15 minute frequency. About 25 minutes later an engineer arrived in a van with tools and a belt, the shredded belt was replaced, the bus started and checked and then given the all clear. What is so surprising in all of this that due to the traffic congestion no other bus had yet passed us! So the engineer had got there quicker than the following bus, mended my bus and got me on my way before the other bus caught up. Well done and thanks to the Engineering Dept.